Abraham Lincoln hair lock fetches $25000 at auction

A Dallas auction gives you the chance to own a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair.

A collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia that includes a lock of the slain president’s hair has been sold for more than $800,000 at auction Saturday in Dallas. Barnes shortly after Lincoln was shot. (AP) “The public was so disgusted by Booth’s atrocity that most all letters, signatures and documents mentioning him were destroyed after Lincoln’s death, making any that survive 150 years later exceedingly rare and valuable,” said Don Ackerman, Consignment Director for Historical Americana at Heritage Auctions. “The Dow Collection gave us a unique perspective of the assassination and I doubt we’ll ever see a grouping like this outside of a museum setting.” A piece of linen from Lincoln’s death bed and stained with his blood sold for $6,000 while an 1864 letter signed by Lincoln authorizing a prisoner swap involving Confederal Gen. Items available for sale include a fragment of an 1862 letter written by Lincoln and addressed to a Baltimore, Md., attorney in which Honest Abe admits the Civil War isn’t going well for the Union. — A display of photographs and autographs from Lincoln, Booth and Boston Corbett, the soldier who shot and killed Booth — a set nicknamed “The Martyr, The Assassin and The Avenger” — which sold for $30,000.

He was primarily an autograph collector, but he concentrated on Civil War and Lincoln for the most part. “After Lincoln died if you had something signed by Booth or owned by him you got rid of it,” says Ackerman.